On Thursday, for the eighth season in a row, the Texas women’s golf team will be headed to the three-day NCAA Regional Championship. The Longhorns enter the competition at Briggs Ranch in San Antonio, Texas, as the No. 11 seed.

The 54-hole regional tournament features three top-10 teams in Golfweek’s rankings: No. 1 Washington, No. 2 UCLA and No. 9 Texas A&M. The Longhorns will also be competing against three Big 12 Conference members Texas Tech, Oklahoma and conference champion Baylor.

Just two weeks ago at the Big 12 Championship, the Longhorns were in San Antonio, where they had a disappointing sixth-place finish.

While junior Tezira Abe had her best finish of the season, a tie for 10th place, the next closest Longhorn was senior Bertine Strauss in 20th. In addition, three of the five Longhorns that competed had individual rounds that exceeded their average by three or more strokes.

At the NCAA Regional Championship, Texas will have a chance to rectify that mediocre performance. Texas has the talent to do so, as every member of the prospective lineup — which includes Strauss, Abe, junior Natalie Karcher, and sophomores Julia Beck and Anne Hakula — has had success this season and all have set personal records.

If Texas is able to finish in the top six, it will advance to play at the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship in Bradenton, Florida, May 22–27.

The Texas men’s golf team claimed its third-straight Big 12 Championship on Wednesday. The Longhorns finished 24 strokes better than runner-up Texas Tech, breaking a Big 12 record. Four Longhorns finished in the top 10.

The No. 2 men’s golf team is victorious once again. On Wednesday, the Longhorns claimed their third-straight Big 12 title at the Big 12 Conference Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The team won in landslide fashion, finishing 24 strokes ahead of runner-up Texas Tech with a four-round total of 1130 (+10). With this win, Texas set the Big 12 record for largest margin of victory at a championship, breaking Oklahoma State’s 20-stroke record set in 2008.

“To have a 20-shot lead going into the last day is different, and that doesn’t usually happen,” head coach John Fields said. “A 72-hole event is also different — we only have one other tournament in college golf that is 72 holes, and that is the national championship. This is great preparation for us.”

The magnitude of Texas’ win is especially notable considering the tough course conditions. The tournament took place at Southern Hills Country Club, a notoriously difficult course.

“Southern Hills is a great golf course; it’s extremely difficult,” Fields said. “It was prepared so that it was at championship caliber. The greens were running at 12.5-13, which made the premium on accuracy — from the tee and the fairway — exceptional.”

Perhaps even more exceptional was freshman Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler earned medalist honors at the championship, finishing in first place on the individual leaderboard with a four-round total at even par. Scheffler is only the fifth player in Texas men’s golf history to win a Big 12 Championship.

“It feels great,” Scheffler said. “I got off to a bad start but was able to turn it around and start hitting some better shots. I’m really glad that the team was able to get it done after having a nice lead going into today. We have a lot of momentum going into the next tournament.”

Other notable performances came from sophomore Gavin Hall and senior Kramer Hickok. Hall finished two strokes behind Scheffler to notch a career-best second-place ending. Hickok finished in a tie for fifth, his second top-five finish this season. Sophomore Beau Hossler rounded out the top-10 finishes for Texas in a tie for eighth.

Next up for the Longhorns is the NCAA Regional Championship. Since it won the conference championship, Texas automatically qualifies for a regional tournament. The regional selection show will be broadcast live at 9 a.m. next Monday on the Golf Channel.

The Longhorns returned from the Linger Longer Invitational on Sunday with their third straight team win. The team collectively shot a 283 on the final round to pull ahead and snag the first-place spot.

Sophomore Beau Hossler (67-69-68) once again led the charge for the Longhorns, making one eagle and five birdies on the final round to finish with second place on the individual leaderboard. This is his third-straight top-two finish.

Senior Kramer Hickok (68-71-72) and sophomore Gavin Hall (69-73-69), who tied for eighth place with a 5-under-par 211, also finished in the top 10.

“Our upperclassmen did a great job in tough conditions. Beau and Gavin, with 68 and 69, were outstanding. Kramer’s 72 was equally solid. Their combined experience served us well,” head coach John Fields said.

The team has next week off and returns to the course April 4 at the Augusta Collegiate Invitational in Augusta, Georgia.

Men's tennis

No. 8 Texas faced off against unranked Texas Pan-American on Sunday, winning by a score of 5–2 at the Westwood Country Club in Austin. The match marked the Longhorns’ seventh win in eight matches and was their last match before the start of conference play.

Over the course of spring break, the Longhorns also faced off against two Big Ten opponents, No. 2 Illinois and No. 11 Ohio State. Texas fell to Illinois, 4–2, but rebounded against Ohio State, winning by a score of 4–1.

The matchup against Texas Pan-American marked a change in the Longhorns’ lineup as head coach Michael Center sat his top-three singles players — seniors Søren Hess-Olesen, Lloyd Glasspool and Adrien Berkowicz — in order to give them some rest before Big 12 play. Sophomore George Goldhoff took over Hess-Olesen’s No. 1 singles spot. Junior Nick Naumann replaced the No. 2 singles spot, and freshman John Mee replaced the No. 3 singles spot.

Goldhoff made the most of his appearance at No. 1 singles, beating Texas Pan–American sophomore Juan Cruz Soria in straight sets, 6–4, 6–3. The win improved Goldhoff’s season record to 13–8.

Texas will begin Big 12 play this week, facing off against Oklahoma State on Friday and No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners on Sunday.

Women's tennis

No. 36 Texas finished off its three-game homestand with a 4–2 win against No. 18 Texas Tech on Sunday afternoon.

The Red Raiders started off strong with two wins on the doubles court to take the doubles point, but the Longhorns were quick to rally. No. 49 Texas junior Breaunna Addison defeated Texas Tech senior Kenna Kilgo on court one, 6–2, 6–0, to put a point on the board for Texas.

Following Addison’s win, freshman Ryann Foster and senior Lina Padegimaite both took command of their own courts and beat out their competitors to strengthen Texas’ lead.

The only loss in singles came from freshman Dani Wagland, who struggled against Texas Tech sophomore Lynn Kiro and fell, 6–3, 6–4.

The win marked an important shift for the Longhorns. After facing a series of injuries and a tough schedule, the Longhorns, who also took down two higher-ranked opponents last week, are returning to full power.

Over the break, Texas took on its first string of Big 12 dual-match games. It started off with a 4–2 win against No. 23 Oklahoma and then a 4–1 loss to No. 10
Oklahoma State.

Texas then came home to Austin to play Yale and TCU before taking on the Red Raiders. The Longhorns took the lead early against Yale by winning the doubles point and then swept the singles for a 4–0 victory. Texas could not get the upper hand against No. 21 TCU and fell to the Horned Frogs, 4–0.

Texas is currently 2–2 against Big 12 teams, and its next match will be against Iowa State on Friday.

Following a strong showing at the Texas-Hawaii Classic, the Texas women’s golf team will continue its season this week at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic in Kapalua, Hawaii.

The Anuenue Spring Break Classic at the Kapalua G.C. Bay Course is the ninth event of the season for the Longhorns. Although the Longhorns have not won any events so far this season, they have competed through cold and windy weather with performances that have kept them in competition until the last day of every tournament.

For the fifth-straight time this season, the Longhorns will feature a lineup with junior Tezira Abe, sophomore Julia Beck, sophomore Anne Hakula, junior Natalie Karcher and senior Bertine Strauss. The group will try to put the Longhorns on the top of the leaderboard. Sophomore Lara Weinstein will also be competing as an individual at the tournament.

The Longhorns will be one of 16 teams participating on the par-72 course. In a season in which the Longhorns have already produced strong results, they hope to put it all together and earn their first team win this season at the 54-hole tournament.

Tags

The No. 3 Texas men’s golf team takes the course this week at the 2015 Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters in pursuit of its second straight victory.

Fresh off a team win last week at the Johnny Hayt Collegiate Invitational, the Longhorns enter their third tournament this spring among a strong field, including No. 1 Illinois, No. 7 USC and No. 11 Texas Tech.

U.S. golfers Charley Hoffman and John Hahn have had good starts to the season. Hoffman won his first tournament in over four years Sunday at the OHL Classic in Mayakoba, Mexico, while Hahn, who participated on the European Tour, shot a 58 in the final round of the Q-school.

Even Donald Trump made news in the golf world by announcing he wants to change the Turnberry’s championship Alisa Course 9th hole from a par-4 to a par-3. Turnberry has hosted the British Open Championship four times and this change is not setting well with golf traditionalists. However, if they are concerned about this change, be prepared for more to come.

Needless to say, no one cares what the golfers and Trump are up to. All that matters to most fans currently are the issues between Dan Jenkins and Tiger Woods

Dan Jenkins, former Sports Illustrated reporter and author, wrote a parody for his monthly article in Golf Digest.

Jenkins wrote this article based on a fake interview he created with Tiger Woods and nothing was off limits. From poking fun at Woods’ lack of winning, to being a bad tipper, firing coaches, and being narcissistic about his performance being the only great moments in golf. One might argue Jenkins covered just about everything with Tiger.

Jenkins' work though got under the skin of Woods. Woods published a piece for The Players’ Tribune, a website owned by Yankees great Derek Jeter, by decrying the fake interview and sending a separate letter to the Golf Digest asking for an apology.

"[Jenkins] has no idea how I think or feel about any of the things he claims to know about, which is why he had to make things up," Woods wrote. "All athletes know that we will be under scrutiny from the media. But this concocted article was below the belt.”

Whether Woods admits it or not, the relationship between he and Jenkins has been tainted since he entered pro golf. Jenkins has covered more than 60 straight Masters and over 200 of golf’s biggest tournaments and entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011. Yet with all of that, he has never done a sit down interview with Woods since his arrival in 1996.

But as Woods continues to fall in the world of golf, he found a way to be in the spotlight again, this time not for the right reason.

As professional golf waits for the season to gear up again, Tiger Woods eyes a return, while Rory McIlroy continues to settle his lawsuit with his management company.

After pulling out of the PGA Championship due to back issues, Woods will return to the golf course to participate in his foundation’s tournament, the Hero World Challenge, on Dec. 4-7.

According to Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, Tiger is still listening to his doctors. The former great is having had back surgery on March 31, while also returning to the golf course in June, participating in four events. However, he pulled out of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and a week later missed the cut on Aug. 8 at the PGA Championship.

Woods began the year ranked highly, but fell to 17th because of his results and inactivity.

Yet as Woods works to get back to course play, he announced on Tuesday that his first golf course, El Cardonal course at Diamente in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, opens on Dec. 16.

He plans to open a course called Bluejack National, near Houston, but we will have to wait to see how his first course turns out. Woods has tried to design courses in the Dubai desert, Asheville, North Carolina, and Mexico’s Baja Coast, but none of them came through.

Now that we have looked at the former No. 1 player, what is Rory McIlroy, the current No. 1 player up to?

McIlroy is skipping the European Master’s BMW Master’s at the end of October and the PGA Tour’s WGC-HSBC Champions during November to devote time to his lawsuit against former management company Horizon Sports. Supposedly during mediation talks, he and Horizon Sports could not reach an agreement and a February 2015 court date has been set.

Even with taking some time off, McIlroy will return to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai on Nov. 20.

However, this court date could affect his tournament schedule for 2015. He is still listed to participate in the Euro Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in January.

These tournaments will be beneficial for McIlroy as he prepares to complete golf’s career grand slam to win the Masters this year.

On Wednesday, the World Golf Hall of Fame announced that its 2015 class will consist of Englishwoman Laura Davies, Australian David Graham, American Mark O’Meara, and late course designer A.W. Tillinghast.

This year’s process was different from previous years because many golf writers were eliminated from the process, relying on a 16-member voting panel Members of this panel included Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and R&A Chief Peter Dawson and three selected golf writers.

With these changes, the usual ceremonies around the week of the Players Championship did not occur due to the process being reevaluated. A lot of outrage existed in 2013 when Fred Couples, only 1 major win, and Colin Montgomerie, no major victories, beat out Graham and O’Meara for the spots.

Although the golf world is happier to see Graham finally make it into the Hall of Fame, the issue this year is that Ian Woosnam was left off. Woosnam is a 29-time European Tour winner, was the world’s number 1 player from April of 1991 to March 1992. During the streak, he went on to win the 1991 Masters.

Yet as the golf world gripes about this issue, recognize that the process is getting better and enjoy the current celebration.

Graham has been waiting a long time for this, and is more than deserving. In his career, Graham finished his career with eight career PGA Tour Titles, five on the Champions Tour. His biggest wins consist of the 1979 PGA Championship and the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion. His performance is still viewed as a benchmark for tournament golf. With these wins, Graham became the fourth Australian to win a major championship and the first to win the U.S. Open.

O’Meara is most famously known for his run through the 1998 tour. He finished with wins at the Masters and the Britsh Open Championship. O’Meara also went on to claim the PGA Player and Tour Player of the Year Awards.

Davies is less known compared to her counterparts, but her impact has been just as important in the LPGA Tour. Within the golf world, Davies won the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open and named Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year in 1994 and 1996.

For British honors, Davies was named a Member of the British Empire in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth the II and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000, the highest award for a British citizen.

Tillinghast has been recognized for his golf courses that he created throughout the United States in the early 20th century. One of his famous sights includes Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., where Jack Nicklaus won 2 of his 4 U.S. Open’s and Phil Mickelson won the U.S. Open in 2005. By Matthew Adams

On Wednesday, the World Golf Hall of Fame announced that its 2015 class will consist of Englishwoman Laura Davies, Australian David Graham, American Mark O’Meara, and late course designer A.W. Tillinghast.

This year’s process was different from previous years because many golf writers were eliminated from the process, relying on a 16-member voting panel Members of this panel included Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and R&A Chief Peter Dawson and three selected golf writers.

With these changes, the usual ceremonies around the week of the Players Championship did not occur due to the process being reevaluated. A lot of outrage existed in 2013 when Fred Couples, only 1 major win, and Colin Montgomerie, no major victories, beat out Graham and O’Meara for the spots.

Although the golf world is happier to see Graham finally make it into the Hall of Fame, the issue this year is that Ian Woosnam was left off. Woosnam is a 29-time European Tour winner, was the world’s number 1 player from April of 1991 to March 1992. During the streak, he went on to win the 1991 Masters.

Yet as the golf world gripes about this issue, recognize that the process is getting better and enjoy the current celebration.

Graham has been waiting a long time for this, and is more than deserving. In his career, Graham finished his career with eight career PGA Tour Titles, five on the Champions Tour. His biggest wins consist of the 1979 PGA Championship and the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion. His performance is still viewed as a benchmark for tournament golf. With these wins, Graham became the fourth Australian to win a major championship and the first to win the U.S. Open.

O’Meara is most famously known for his run through the 1998 tour. He finished with wins at the Masters and the Britsh Open Championship. O’Meara also went on to claim the PGA Player and Tour Player of the Year Awards.

Davies is less known compared to her counterparts, but her impact has been just as important in the LPGA Tour. Within the golf world, Davies won the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open and named Golf Writers Association of America Female Player of the Year in 1994 and 1996.

For British honors, Davies was named a Member of the British Empire in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth the II and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000, the highest award for a British citizen.

Tillinghast has been recognized for his golf courses that he created throughout the United States in the early 20th century. One of his famous sights includes Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., where Jack Nicklaus won 2 of his 4 U.S. Open’s and Phil Mickelson won the U.S. Open in 2005.

These four members will be enshrined on July 13, 2015 at St. Andrews instead of the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fl.

These four members will be enshrined on July 13, 2015 at St. Andrews instead of the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fl.

Following a 10th place finish in Norman, Oklahoma, at the Schooner Fall Classic, the women’s golf team will host its first home tournament of the season Sunday through Tuesday at the University of Texas Golf Club (72 par, 6,143 yards).

This will mark the 41st anniversary of the Betsy Rawls Invitational, which honors the Texas alumna, a breast cancer survivor, who went on to win four U.S. Women’s Open titles and 55 LPGA Tour events in her Hall of Fame career.

Every team will be wear pink uniforms in support of breast cancer awareness on day two of the tournament.

The Longhorns will host 14 collegiate teams, of which only one — No. 16 University of Nevada, Las Vegas — is ranked in Golfweek’s Top 20. The Longhorns currently sit at No. 40.

Some Texas schools and Big 12 teams to be in attendance include Baylor, SMU, Iowa State and UTSA.

Tee times for the outing start between 8:15 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. each day of the tournament.